Beckham to play in Paris - and donate his salary

The next stop on David Beckham’s glamorous and jet-setting soccer career seems like a logical one: Paris.

On Thursday, hours after his private plane landed in the French capital, Beckham announced at a news conference that he would be joining Paris St.-Germain for the rest of the Ligue 1 season. He said he would donate his salary for the five-month deal to a local children’s charity.

For Paris St.-Germain, a club whose ambitions have swelled over the past year under the control of a new Qatari ownership group, the signing represents a major public relations coup, if not an actual boost for the team’s on-field operations.

Beckham, 37, one of the world’s most famous athletes, an Englishman who became a household name for his good looks as much as his devastating right foot, was chased by several teams around the world. After finishing a five-year commitment with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer in December after winning back-to-back league titles, he reportedly heard offers from at least one club on every continent where professional soccer is played.

British soccer star David Beckham. No chance of an A-League berth, it now appears. Photo: Reuters

"It’s an exciting city — it always has been, and it always will be," Beckham said of Paris.

"But now there’s a club that’s going to have a lot of success over the next 10, 15, 20 years.

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"Wielding loads of fresh cash, Paris St.-Germain over the past year has added star players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Lucas Moura, as well as respected coach Carlo Ancelotti. Ligue 1 has long been seen as a second-tier competition in Europe, but the club has looked determined to change that image on its own.

Beckham played down his arrival, saying he did not expect to be thrust into a featured role. But Paris St. Germain seemed happy to play him up, decorating the home page of its website with a black-and-white photograph of Beckham in a tie and jacket along with a headline proclaiming, "Beckham in Paris."

Beckham, a former captain of England’s national team, has already played for some of the world’s biggest clubs in cosmopolitan cities. After rising through the youth system of Manchester United, where he won six league titles, he made career stops with Real Madrid, where he won one league championship, and the Galaxy, where he won two.

His stay in Los Angeles included two winter loans to the Italian club AC Milan. Fabien Barthez, a former goalkeeper for France’s national team who played with Beckham at Manchester United, said the move was good for French soccer.

"It shakes things up," he told France Info radio.

"It’s true that there are some who will always talk," he went on, referring to criticisms that Beckham represents little more than a grab for publicity.

"But we know that music."

Barthez added, "You mustn’t forget what the guy has lived, and all the experience, all this lived experience that he can bring to the young players and the team."

Even as Beckham’s athleticism has deteriorated, he has remained a global star. Wherever he and his family have lived, the attention of soccer fans, journalists and paparazzi has followed. This time, Beckham’s wife, the pop singer turned fashion designer Victoria Beckham, and their three sons will remain in London, where the children attend school.